Without a significant, serious and immediate increase in diversity and inclusion, the conservation community will become a movement of the past instead of a guiding principle of the future. The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington is a multi-summer, undergraduate experiential-learning program focused on the themes of biodiversity, food, climate, and water across urban and wild spaces.

Last summer, two dozen stellar freshmen and sophomores from all over the country — and diverse along all axes: race, ethnicity, socio-economics, area of study — gathered in WA for this immersion/field-based course. They traveled all over the state and addressed a range of conservation issues through a variety of ecological and social science lenses. The overarching theme? How we can best grow an inclusive and diverse conservation movement.